bherzog513

How do the battery comps. cycle batts. How do they get more voltage and run time out of them? I know they do it per single cell, but what happens if you do it to a stick pack?

94eg!

iTrader: (17)

The best way to gain battery performance is to put those Nimh & Nicad cells in the trash can and buy a Lipo. You'll never look back...

niznai

That thing he said.

If for some reason you can't go Lipo, you need to know you can't do anything with a Nicd/Nimh stick pack. You need access to each cell to charge/discharge individually.

Going Lipo basically guarantees you're on equal footing with anyone else in the game provided you buy a decent battery.

Geezatec

All three battery types, NiCd,NiMh, & lipo's are different chemically. NiCd could be discharge to .9v, NiMh could be discharge to .2v with no memory. Lipo not less then 3.1v. per cell. NiCd & niMh should be cycled twice a month depend on use. Lipo's once a month or 6 weeks.

If you race. Cycle your NiCds and NiMh to minimum voltages an wait 12 hours before recharging, just top them off at the track.

Lipo's 3.1v per cell. i.e. 1S @ 3.1v, 2S @6.2, 3S @9.3v. lipo's can be charge anytime. Use correct lipo charger. Mention earlier a difference in chemically. And precaution on them. Never store lipo at maximum voltage or MAH, store them at half voltage or charge at 1amp @ 1/2Mah i.e. 1amp@ 2500(5000)MAH.

Lipo are the new technology. Has higher burst then NiCd & NiMh. Your decsion to run with. Find literature on battery type, so you have the understanding and composition of each type packs.

Good Luck!!

RC Dad

iTrader: (26)

It's hard to get the cells equalized in a stick pack since you can't get to them individually. 'Zapping' them like the matchers do can only be done one cell at a time. Realize too that the stick packs are made from unmatched cells to begin with - the best cells (10-15%) after zapping and initial cycling are put together in matched race packs, the rest are more or less randomly assigned to stick packs. Some stick packs are just better than others because they happen to get better cells.

I've gotten better performance out of stick packs by slowly discharging, then wait overnight and discharge again. This allows the cells that still have life to sort of equalize. Or use one of those cycler/equalizers that are made specifically for stick packs - they do help, even if they take 5 hrs to discharge. I see MuchMore makes one that allows you access to individual cells by punching holes in the shrink wrap and grounding to the individual battery cell cases.

Then you can charge the pack at a lower rate, like 2 amps, to get a little more power into them. The slower rate allows all the cells to absorb as much as possible. I used to charge mine the night before then re-peak them at normal amps right before the race. I'd usually get them to take in another 500 mah or so doing it that way, and batts have noticably more punch when they're warm off the charger.